Pinnacle -2½ -104 BET365 -2½ -110 Sportsinteraction  -2½ -110 888Sport  -2½ -110

Posted at 8:00 AM ET. Odds are subject to change.

Ohio State -2½ -106 over Michigan

Amica Actual Pavilion – Providence, RI

1:00 PM ET. Not these two again! Ohio State and Michigan—it’s like watching two stepbrothers turn their living room into a WWE ring, only with more fouls and fewer folding chairs. The rivalry alone ensures chaos, but the real intrigue is in the number posted for this contest. The unranked Buckeyes are favored by two over the #17 Wolverines, which will have casual bettors scratching their heads. Shouldn't the ranked team be favored? Vegas disagrees, and when Vegas sends a message, we listen.

Michigan comes in riding a five-game win streak, knocking off the likes of #7 Purdue, Indiana (in Bloomington), and Oregon to climb to the top of the B1G standings. That all sounds great on paper, but we urge everyone to slam the brakes. The Wolverines may be the most fortunate team in the country over their last eight games. They’ve gone 6-2 in that span, but here’s where things get interesting: all six of those wins came by a combined 20 points—just 3.3 per game. Flip a few possessions the other way, and instead of a five-game heater, Michigan could just as easily be staring at an eight-game skid. In short, they’ve been walking a tightrope with no safety net, and at some point, the balancing act collapses. Ohio State, meanwhile, is 5-5 over their last 10 (15-10 overall), but the record doesn’t tell the whole story. They lost by eight at Nebraska and Illinois, but in their other three losses, they fell to Oregon, at Wisconsin, and Indiana by a combined five points. In all three, they were one shot away from flipping the outcome. If even a couple of those games had gone their way, the Buckeyes could be sitting at 18-7 and favored by a bigger number here. Unlike Michigan, their five wins in this stretch weren’t of the nail-biting variety—three of them were by 17 points or more. The bottom line? The Wolverines’ record is inflated by sheer luck, while the Buckeyes’ looks worse than it should due to some brutal variance. The oddsmakers are tipping their hand, and we’ll follow their lead. Spot the bucket with Ohio State.

Take advantage of BET365's early NFL payout offer! 

For straight bets, if the team you back to win goes 17 Points ahead at any stage during the game, BET365 will pay out your bet in full regardless of whether the opposition comes back to win the game.

For parlays and Same Game Parlays, if a team you have backed goes 17 Points ahead, this selection will be marked as won within My Bets, with the remaining selections left to run.

Here is a wager we were paid out early on that would eventually lose. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------